For Virat Kohli, life has returned to normalcy as the world of cricket patiently awaited his next international century, which spanned 83 innings across forms, for 1019 days before the former India captain eventually ended the long wait on Thursday with a century in the format he least anticipated.
With 12 boundaries and six maximums, Kohli hit a stunning 122 off 61 balls, becoming the first player to reach the century mark in T20 international matches. And with the incredible hit, which once again propelled him to the top of the Asia Cup 2022 run-scoring tally, Kohli broke a staggering number of records. Here are some of them:
1 In terms of most tons in international cricket, Kohli is tied with Australian icon Ricky Ponting with 71 centuries. He currently trails Sachin Tendulkar in the count for 100 centuries.
Also Read: Queen Elizabeth II, the longest serving monarch of Britain, passes away at 96
2. Kohli reached the milestone of 71 tons across all forms in 522 innings, which is the quickest by a cricket player in history. He only managed to outperform Sachin’s total by one innings (523).
3. 24000 runs in international cricket was the milestone Kohli hit en route to his knock on Thursday in Dubai and the star batsman became the fastest player to the feat attaining it in his 522nd innings. Sachin’s record of 543 innings was surpassed by him. Rahul Dravid was the only other Indian hitter to accomplish the feat.
4. With 6 hundreds in T20 cricket, Kohli now shares the record for most by an Indian batsman in the format with KL Rahul and captain Rohit Sharma. With Pakistan captain Babar Azam’s six other such scores, it is also the joint-highest total by an Asian hitter. He is currently fourth overall, trailing only Chris Gayle’s impressive total of 22 hundreds.
5. After Suresh Raina, Rohit, and Rahul, Kohli is the fourth Indian batsman to score a century in each of the major formats. He joins Rohit, Rahul, Raina, Suryakumar Yadav, and Deepak Hooda as the sixth Indian batsman to score three figures in T20 international cricket.
6. The total of 122, which surpassed Rohit’s 118 against Sri Lanka, is now the highest by an Indian hitter in a T20I match. The unbeaten innings is also the highest T20I score in a game played in the United Arab Emirates.
Also Read: Brahmastra: Pre-booking raises 23 crores over weekend shows
7. Kohli scored during his innings, reaching the milestone in just his 96th T20I innings to become the second player after Rohit to amass 3500 T20I runs and the fastest player to do so.
8. Since surpassing Rohit, Kohli currently has the most runs scored by an Indian hitter in Asia Cup history with 1042. He comes in at number three overall, after Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka.
